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Science Quickly

Love Computers? Love History? Listen to This Podcast

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.2639 Ratings

🗓️ 12 April 2022

⏱️ 5 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the newest season of Lost Women of Science, we enter a world of secrecy, computers and nuclear weapons—and see how Klára Dán von Neumann was a part of all of it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Understanding the human body is a team effort. That's where the Yachtel group comes in.

0:05.8

Researchers at Yachtolt have been delving into the secrets of probiotics for 90 years.

0:11.0

Yacold also partners with nature portfolio to advance gut microbiome science through the global grants for gut health, an investigator-led research program.

0:19.6

To learn more about Yachtolt visit yacult.co.com.

0:22.7

J-P. That's Y-A-K-U-L-T dot-C-O-J-P. When it comes to a guide for your gut, count on Yacolt.

0:32.1

Hello, 60-second science listeners. I'm Katie Hafner, the host of Lost Women of Science. Each season is devoted

0:40.5

to the life and work of one scientist who hasn't gotten the recognition she deserves.

0:47.5

We're calling this season a grasshopper in very tall grass, and it's all about Clara Don von Neumann.

0:54.8

Clary, as she was called by friends, was one of the world's first computer programmers.

1:01.2

I've been writing about computers for a really long time, more than 30 years, in fact.

1:07.0

I even wrote a history of the internet in 1996 called Where Wizards Stay Up Late. And the

1:14.4

wizards? All men. I've been on this beat for so long. I thought I knew all the major figures.

1:21.6

But then I stumbled upon Clara von Neumann's name this past year, and I drew a blank. How had I missed

1:30.0

her? When I asked some big hitters in the computer science world about her, they all had the

1:36.4

same response. Who? I couldn't shake this feeling that here was this truly lost woman of computing who was

1:46.4

nonetheless connected to very well-known histories and people. She was involved in nuclear

1:52.4

weapons research. She worked for Los Alamos. She coded for the Enniac, one of the earliest

1:58.1

electronic computers, and she ran in a circle of famous scientists.

2:04.2

People like Albert Einstein, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and her own husband, John von Neumann,

2:11.1

a famous Hungarian scientist who was considered one of the smartest people alive.

2:16.8

I thought Clary could teach us a thing or two about this time, the dawn of electronic computers

2:22.1

and nuclear warfare, and so we started digging.

...

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